I wrote a preview of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Jan. 11 appearance at Miami Dade College, where he will discuss his new collection of previously published essays, "We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy." If you're familiar with Coates' work -- and how could you not be? -- you know not to expect a dry recitation of text. Coates is a dynamic public speaker, as funny as he is fearless, and he will be interviewed onstage at MDC by journalist Nadege Green of WLRN. Tickets are on sale now.

Christine Dolen reviews "Billy and Me," a world-premiere play by Wall Street Journal drama critic Terry Teachout that concerns the friendship between playwrights Tennesee Williams and William Inge: "How much truth is in 'Billy and Me'? Plenty, including a driven artist’s irresistible compulsion to write, the cost of exposing one’s inner life and, regarding a profession increasingly on the ropes in our digital age, the lingering impact criticism can have on an artist."